Sometimes it pays to be curious!

[c2500]

Forth, in Simpsonville, SC the only inspections for emergency lights are done by the fire department, one inspector in a rapidly growing city. He may get around to this Dr.'s office in the next two years.

That is amazing. In the county, at least the Parker District, you get two visits a year. In the City of Greenville, you are guaranteed an annual visit.

(I am in Greenville by the way and see no harm in what you did)

c2500

 

[mdshunk]

I don't have to drum up work. I'm industrial maintenance. Plenty of work... I messed around with "other peoples equipment" because I know that people don't check things like this, and I'm a button pusher. I could have kept quiet, and someone could have gotten hurt because I was quiet!

Why is that your problem?

If you were sitting in the waiting room and saw an obvious hazard would you not do something?

No way, Jose. Not my problem.

I'm not taking away someones business, because no one would have known until the fire department got around to checking it in a few years........Then a handy man would have been called. He wouldn't have checked the unit out, just replaced the battery....

There are already people charged with checking this stuff out. As you mentioned, apparently the fire department checks these in your area.

I done him a great favor, and he returned the favor as any professional should. If someone had gotten hurt because he doesn't know that these things should be checked monthly, he could have been in deep dodo, or dead himself.

So I'm supposed to think of you as a hero since you run around sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong?

 

[ptonsparky]

For the button pushers

 

[electricmanscott]

I stopped reading after several posts of absolute foolishness. How do you guys even make it through the day living under such gloom and doom. Amazingly ridiculous responses.


Well done, to the original poster. :smile:

 

[tmbrk]

I was having lunch at an A&W about a month ago when the fire dept. came in to do a safety check. One of the guys walked over to an emergency light above an exit to test it. He couldn't quite reach and tried using his pen to push the button. That didn't work so he tried his clip board. Aftrer that didn't work it looked like he was about to give up and walk away. He turned around and saw me watching him and then got a stool and climbed up and pushed the button.(It worked)

Probably not what he had in mind when he decided to become a fireman.

 

[mdshunk]

The "press the button to see if it works" test is a bunch of hooey anyhow. These things are supposed to light the lamp normally for 90 minutes. How many do you think work for the 2 or 3 seconds they try them, but will go dark in 5 or 10 minutes? Methinks a bunch.

 

[JohnJ0906]

The "press the button to see if it works" test is a bunch of hooey anyhow. These things are supposed to light the lamp normally for 90 minutes. How many do you think work for the 2 or 3 seconds they try them, but will go dark in 5 or 10 minutes? Methinks a bunch.

Almost every time I turn off a lighting circuit to do work, and there are emergency lights on that circuit, the e-light dies within 15 minutes.

 

[growler]

How do you guys even make it through the day living under such gloom and doom.

It's called reality. If this is a high rise medical building then many of these are maintained by the owners. They have contractors that have already been checked out to do electrical repairs and they don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry comming in off the street doing electrical work in their building.

It's really important to find out if the guy asking you to do a job is really authorized to have the work done. If he isn't the owner then he may not be.

I have done job for tenants in buildings that's I later found out I wasn't even allowed to work in. You can normally settle things by furnishing proof of insurance and a copy of you license. They still get a little upset.

Depending on the lease agreement the owner can keep lots of control over a property. Being an electricain doesn't give you the right to open the first light fixture, authorization from the owner does. It's better if it's on a signed work order.

 

[electricmanscott]

It's called reality. If this is a high rise medical building then many of these are maintained by the owners. They have contractors that have already been checked out to do electrical repairs and they don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry comming in off the street doing electrical work in their building.

It's really important to find out if the guy asking you to do a job is really authorized to have the work done. If he isn't the owner then he may not be.

I have done job for tenants in buildings that's I later found out I wasn't even allowed to work in. You can normally settle things by furnishing proof of insurance and a copy of you license. They still get a little upset.

Depending on the lease agreement the owner can keep lots of control over a property. Being an electricain doesn't give you the right to open the first light fixture, authorization from the owner does. It's better if it's on a signed work order.

Wow, you get all that from the original post.

Come on, lighten up a bit.

The guy did a good thing, the right thing, and posts here to make conversation and gets ripped for it.

Pathetic.

 

[satcom]

Wow, you get all that from the original post.

Come on, lighten up a bit.

The guy did a good thing, the right thing, and posts here to make conversation and gets ripped for it.

Pathetic.

You can be sure, the company that had the maint contract on the life safety equipment, are concerned with someone tampering with their equipment, as some otheres have tried to point out, life safety devices are not the same as replacing a light or fuse.

The thing to do is learn from this not look for who did what.

 

[emahler]

my experience is that the charging unit will go, causing the battery to die...how did you check the unit?

 

[electricmanscott]

You guys might just be over thinking this a little too much.

 

[bikeindy]

Wow! !!!!

 

[mdshunk]

The guy did a good thing, the right thing, and posts here to make conversation and gets ripped for it.

What! It was not the right thing to do.

Maybe I should go around taking people's blood pressure, ambush style, and offerring cupons for Lipitor?

 

[peter d]

What! It was not the right thing to do.

He changed a battery in a bug eye. Whooptey freaking do. :roll:

 

[mdshunk]

He changed a battery in a bug eye. Whooptey freaking do. :roll:

No, I'm not talking at all about changing the battery. He was essentially hired to do that. I'm talking about messing around with the thing in the first place to even know it needed a battery. Maybe it would have been okay for him to whip the panel cover off while he was waiting with his Leatherman to see if there's anything of concern in the panel?

 

[peter d]

I'm talking about messing around with the thing in the first place to even know it needed a battery.

He pushed a test button on a bug eye. Whooptey freaking do. :roll:

 

[electricalperson]

What! It was not the right thing to do.

Maybe I should go around taking people's blood pressure, ambush style, and offerring cupons for Lipitor?

he told the doctor there was a problem and the doctor allowed him to do the work. all he did was press a button on an emergency light in the waiting room its not like he rewired a circuit in the building or something like that. i press buttons on emergency lights too. i dont find anything wrong with what he did. he done a good thing for the doctor.

 

[growler]

all he did was press a button on an emergency light in the waiting room its not like he rewired a circuit in the building or something like that.

Here is the question: Does every maintenance electrician, electrical contractor, electrician, apprentice,helper, plumber , mechanic or anyone else that's just curious have a God given right to start testing the emergency lights? If they don't then he doesn't either because he wasn't there at the request of the owner on a service call. He was a patient in the waiting room and that's it.

There a lot of people that know what the test button is for, it's not a closely guarded secret.

 

[electricalperson]

Here is the question: Does every maintenance electrician, electrical contractor, electrician, apprentice,helper, plumber , mechanic or anyone else that's just curious have a God given right to start testing the emergency lights? If they don't then he doesn't either because he wasn't there at the request of the owner on a service call. He was a patient in the waiting room and that's it.

There a lot of people that know what the test button is for, it's not a closely guarded secret.

well whats wrong with pressing the test button? is there a law against it? i think he just made a suggestion to the doctor to fix it and he let him. he didnt force him to fix it.

i dont think there is anything wrong with being curious about something as stupid as an emergency light. all he did was push a button and found a problem and made the suggestion that he has it fixed and he gotten permission to do it. dont think any laws of electrical were broken